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Published: October 14th 2010
We started off by nearly missing the start of the trip due to a road accident on the road into Motueka, but luckily we made it, and caught the bus with the rest of the group to Marahau, and then the WaterTaxi to Onetahuti beach where we got kayaks, paddles, spraydecks, and cags for the wimpy people, and set off. I was in the front of our kayak, Andrew was steering in the back. We started off to Tonga Island at a very leisurely pace as the people there for just a half day were quite slow. Once there we paddled round the island, watching the seals and cormorants (shags), and stopping off on the far side for lolly cake - rocky road cake but made with sweets rather than raisins. Then we headed back to the main coast and south along Foul Point, which was actually quite nice - though Andrew kept steering us towards the biggest waves to get me wet. We stopped for lunch in Mosquito Bay which had a definite lack of mosquitoes and over-population of sandflies, considering the name - Rosie (our guide) said that this was because they called the best beaches rubbish names to
put the tourists off visiting them. After lunch, the 4 slowest kayakers left to walk the rest of the way, leaving just 4 of us and Rosie which meant the pace for the afternoon was quicker, and we could therefore detour into little bays and stuff that we hadn't had time for in the morning. We also made several detours through tiny gaps in the rocks (Andrew steering), getting stuck once because, as Rosie had told us, it was too shallow, and getting the other guys' kayak stuck once as we powered through a narrow gap, and they tried to follow slowly and failed. We got to Anchorage Bay, where we would be spending the night on a houseboat backpackers called Aquapackers, quite early, and so spent some time sunbathing on the beach before heading out to the boat. Once on the boat we had a BBQ, and spent the night drinking from the self-service bar, chatting to some random germans, epically failing at naming decent American bands, and, in Andrew's case, getting drunk enough to imitate his 3 year old daugher's dancing.
The guys we had paddled with the day before were hiking the next bit, so the
Te Pukatea Bay
View from lookout pointnext morning we met up with 4 new people, and Rohan the guide for the day. We started off by paddling out to Te Pukatea bay - Lonely planet ranked as one of he most beatiful in the world - where we stopped for lolly cake, and to go up to the nearby lookout point (whilst Andrew went for a "swim" which involved just about getting his knees wet). Then we paddled out round Adele Island where we saw loads more seals and shags, and one little penguin. The penguin was quite shy and kept it's distance but the seals were really friendly and swam about near the boat - getting close enough to touch at one point, which isn't as cool as it seems as they are nearly as smelly as my brothers. Then we headed over to Fisherman's Island for lunch (via several small gaps in the rocks, of course), where we chilled out on the beach for quite a while. When we set off again it was to go back to Marahau where we started out from, this time with me steering - which didn't work too well as I'm not used to steering a kayak with
peddles (to control a rudder on the back). After a bit we were out from the shadow of Fisherman's Island and had the wind behind us, so we rafted up and Rohan got a "sail" (big tarpauline type thing) out, tied the back 2 corners to the paddles to hold it up, and gave the front 2 corners to the guys at the front to hold down, and we sailed back to Marahau, whilst he told us about the Abel Tasman. It was originally dicovered by Abel Tasman ages ago, when he sailed up to a beach, had a misunderstanding with the local Mauri's which caused them to attack him, and he ran away. Then it was properly discovered by Captain Cook about a hundred years later. Also, New Zealand is the only country that the British Empire failed to conquer, because the Mauri's called for peace and invited the British in - which didn't work out too well. By this point we were very near the shore so we broke up the raft and paddled in, as fast as possible to try to surf the tiny breakers, then it was a bus ride back to Motueka, and the long
drive back to Picton.
We then had one day in Picton for Martha's birthday, which we celebrated by going into town and doing things like going to the Aquarium and sailing tiny toy boats on a paddling pool type lake. Then in the evening played games such as blind man's bluff (which everyone cheated at), and sardines, and had a very fancy meal of Scollops and Prawns cooked by Andrew. Then Mary decided that they should all go to see if they wanted to live in Golden Bay, so we had to drive back over the mountain to Nelson again, where we stopped for lunch at a place with tame eels in the river which were quite cool apart from when they wriggled up onto the rocks towards you when you fed them. So far so good, only then we had the added bonus of driving over yet another mountain, and 5 minutes before arriving at the hostel (Kiwiana) Martha decided to be carsick. At Kiwiana we chilled out in the hot tub and played table tennis and pool with Arlo, until he was banned from the pool table.
The following day we started by going for lunch
at the famous and very good Mussel Inn, then me and Andrew went BloKarting on the beach, whilst Arlo destroyed things with sticks and Mary and Martha waited taking photos and generally doing beach-type things. BloKarting was amazing, I started off with a 3.5m yellow sail, which was fun and I was just about getting it on the edge, then Andrew decided to do it too so he got the little sail, and I got the 4.5m one, which was much better as I was getting it on 2 wheels more easily. After a while though, me and Andrew swapped as he was having issues with the little sail, and once he'd got the hang of it we had a mini race which I won 😉. Then the wind started to drop off and the sand got wetter as the tide came in and it got harder to keep the karts going so Andrew gave up and I got the big sail again, even managing to capsize it this time. The next morning we went down again, though this time Andrew just dropped me off, but it wasn't as much fun as it wasn't really windy enough and the sand
was quite wet, so even with the 5.5m sail I wasn't really getting going, and even when the sail was full and the kart was on 2 wheels, the sand was so wet that I just stayed still! That afternoon we went to a natural maze where we wandered through various rock passages for a while.
The next day we went up to a lookout point halfway up a cliff which was quite cool to get to as we had to walk through a path with absolutely massive rocks/cliffs either side, and then down to a beach where Martha collected pretty nearly every shell she saw, and we made a dam across a stream. Then they decided that they wanted to live in Takaka so we spent the next day on the beach, looking at schools, paying for a house, moving all their stuff in. Then, after Andrew had driven off to Nelson to buy things like mattresses, Mary decided that she couldn't live in the house they'd rented as it was too close to the road, and so after a night a Kiwiana, she went off to Brisbane for a speech, Andrew and the kids started the drive
back down to Te Anau, and I got the bus over the hill to Nelson, where I spent the night before flying to Queenstown (on a commercial flight but with a crazy pilot who kept turning the plane around and banking it right on the edge to show us certain mountains and glaciers), where I stayed for a couple of nights before saying goodbye to New Zealand and flying onto Cairns, Australia.
Katie x
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mary
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hi there
How you doing? You OK? Amazing but true, it is hot and sunny in Te Anau and we are having a ball. Really glad we moved here. Look at us (and you) on http://www.flickr.com/photos/56425988@N02/ Send us an email! xx